With only three features under his belt,
writer-director-actor Xavier Dolan has
already established himself as Canada’s
cinematic poet of desire... With Tom à la
ferme, Dolan brilliantly riffs on the psychological
thriller as he explores the darker
reaches of ardour and attachment. Travelling
to the countryside to attend the funeral
of his lover Guy, bottle-blond Montrealer
Tom (Dolan) meets Guy’s mother Agathe and
his older brother Francis, a monstrous (and
ferociously repressed) embodiment of rural
machismo. As it gradually becomes clear
to Tom that Francis may not let him leave,
Dolan masterfully unravels a moving (and
sometimes terrifying) story of loss and longing
that reminds us how lethal desire can be.